


I Was Doing Just Fine Before I Met You

by evieoh, stargazerdaisy



Series: skyeward college frenemies AU [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Banter, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Friends as Family, Friendship, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-08 04:26:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14097183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evieoh/pseuds/evieoh, https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargazerdaisy/pseuds/stargazerdaisy
Summary: “So when did you first know you were in love with me?” Skye asks teasingly, with her chin resting on her hands where they are folded on his chest. She is laying on top of him, wearing nothing but a smug smirk, and it might just be his favorite thing ever. “Was it like, the very first time you saw me? Was that why you were such an ass? Were you just overwhelmed by how amazing-”Her teasing is cut off abruptly and she shrieks with laughter as he flips them over in the tiny bed, pinning her down and tickling her until she cries mercy.Was there ever a specific moment when he fell in love with her? Or was it just a series of them? So many little moments that snuck up on him over the years until he couldn’t pretend he didn’t any longer?





	1. Freshman Year

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all, evie's previous account was hacked and all her fics deleted which unfortunately deletes co-written stories too, so we're reuploading them all now. This fic was originally posted in February 2017.
> 
> Sequel to [Maybe I'm Too Busy Being Yours To Fall For Someone New](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14096781/chapters/32479851)
> 
> [There is fic art here](http://evieoh.tumblr.com/post/157206276594/skyeward-fic) and [a soundtrack for the college frenemies AU series](http://evieoh.tumblr.com/post/157275950682/skyeward-frenemies-college-au-playlist)

_"How dare you march into my heart? Oh how rude of you, to ruin my miserable."_

“So when did you first know you were in love with me?” Skye asks teasingly, with her chin resting on her hands where they are folded on his chest. She is laying on top of him, wearing nothing but a smug smirk, and it might just be his favorite thing ever. “Was it like, the very first time you saw me? Was that why you were such an ass? Were you just overwhelmed by how amazing-”

Her teasing is cut off abruptly and she shrieks with laughter as he flips them over in the tiny bed, pinning her down and tickling her until she cries mercy. Her entire body is still shaking with laughter as he collapses on top of her. Her happiness seeps through his skin and fills his bones like marrow, like he can feel her joy pumping through his veins. He has never known anyone like her, has never been affected by another person the way he is by her. After his family, and the way he grew up, he never thought that he would. But then she came into his life and pushed her way in, carved a place in his heart for herself without even trying.

Was there ever a specific moment when he fell in love with her? Or was it just a series of them? So many little moments that snuck up on him over the years until he couldn’t pretend he didn’t any longer?

He had never known anyone as genuine as her. In his family, in the world they lived in, everybody lied. It was just as natural as breathing. They hid the ugly parts of their lives from the outside world, and he just thought that it was how everybody lived. He learned young that nobody could be relied on, not even your own memories.

And then Skye came along, so unapologetically herself. It took him so long to believe she wasn’t hiding something else beneath the surface, that anyone could be that authentic. She had her own deflections and defenses, sure, but underneath that she wasn’t hiding some ultimately self-serving agenda. She was just as lost as he sometimes felt, but somehow she was able to be so open about it. It both mystified and infuriated him, while drawing him in all the same.

 

*   *   *

When he first arrived at school he just wanted to be left alone.  He had a goal, a plan, for when he got here.  He was going to work hard for four years, then move on and build a career.   Nothing was going to derail him or keep him from achieving his goals.  Which meant that he really needed to focus on the reading in front of him, not be forced to listen to the inane chatter coming from the doorway where his roommate was greeting two girls.  He had been surprised enough when he was paired up with a Scottish engineering student who could talk a mile a minute, but over the last week, he’d adjusted to Fitz’s techno-babble.  Now Ward was witnessing that babbling reaching new heights as the British girl matched Fitz word for word and they even finished each other’s sentences.

“Come in, come in,” Fitz ushered the two girls.

Ward looked over his book at the new arrivals.  The shorter girl was focused on Fitz, with soft brown hair and a wide smile.  She was the definition of prim and proper with her sweater and button down shirt, what could only be described as trousers, and sensible shoes.  Whereas her companion had the whole devil-may-care hipster look nailed, right down to the flannel shirt and ankle boots.  The girl with the long dark hair glanced around the room appraisingly, and Ward immediately felt his neck prickle.  How could she make any judgement about their room?  No one asked for her opinion.  Her gaze settled on him and she grinned,  _grinned_ , like she’d just discovered a new toy to play with.  Ward was no one’s plaything.

“And who is this, Fitz?” she asked.

Fitz looked over and casually waved his hand, “That’s my roommate, Ward.  Ward, this is Jemma and this is-”

“Skye,” the mysterious girl said, offering her hand to shake.

Ward looked at her hand, looked her up and down, and sneered back, “And what’s your real name?”

Immediately her face darkened into a scowl.  Clearly he’d hit a sore point and he couldn’t help but feel a little satisfied. “Skye is my real name,” she hissed back.  “At least the only one that matters,” she added quietly, almost to herself.

Before he could inquire further, Fitz located what he was looking for and swept them out of the room.  Ward finally had the peace and quiet he’d been craving for the last 10 minutes. But his focus had been utterly destroyed.  Somehow that girl had gotten under his skin.  She was probably just one of those girls he’d met by the dozen, who didn’t know what they wanted and just floated along from thing to thing that amused them.  With great difficulty, he forced himself to put her out of his mind and refocus on the basic structures of the brain for Psychology 101.  

If only that had been the end of it….

 

Honestly, Ward realized that the prank war was getting slightly insane long before things started to get really out of hand. But every time he decided that maturity would prevail, Skye did something like put his number in a fake want ad with instructions to only call after midnight and he was out for blood. She was infuriating! Sure, he knew he was maybe responsible for their rough start, but her actions since then just proved that she really was just as immature as he thought.

The morning he was going home for Thanksgiving, he made his way out to the car and opened the door only to have a wave of what appeared to be ping pong balls come rushing out of the car. As he turned to see Skye smirking at him from her perch on a bench on the other side of the parking lot as she took a photo of his reaction on her phone, he realized that maybe irritation wasn’t the only reaction she inspires in him. Because mixed in with the general annoyance as he tried to figure out how on earth he was supposed to get all of these balls out of his car, there was a weird tinge of reluctant admiration. (And as she grinned and saluted him mockingly before walking away, he was a little horrified to realize that there might also be a hint of attraction mixed in there too.)

 

Signing up for intramurals had mostly been a way to blow off steam.  He didn’t need to join a million clubs or watch tv shows and obsess over the details of time travel (unlike a roommate of his who shall remain nameless).  But playing basketball twice a week was the perfect amount of time and interaction for him to enjoy.  He got placed on a 2-on-2 team with Antoine Triplett, whose blinding smile and laid-back personality put Ward at ease quickly.  They often met up on their own to practice their skills and just hang out.  One such night, Ward couldn’t seem to stop ranting.  

“She’s infuriating!” he ranted.  “She thinks she’s so smart, but she’s clearly not.”

Trip just smiled and passed the ball back to Ward, starting the game again.

“Who even does that?  Short sheets someone’s bed?  What are we, 12?”

Trip took advantage of Ward’s distraction and slapped the ball out of his hands, driving around him for an easy lay up.  “That’s seven.  You gonna get your head actually in the game at any point here?  Not that I’m complaining that much.  I always enjoy kicking your ass.”

“You wish,” Ward rolled his eyes.  “Come on, I’ll catch up in no time.”

“Sure you will,” Trip scoffed.  “If you could just shut up about Skye for four seconds, you might have a chance.”

“I don’t talk about her that much.  I’m just annoyed.  Let a guy vent, geez.”

“Whatever, man.  You most definitely  _do_  talk about her that much.  I’ve never even laid eyes on the girl, but I’m pretty sure I could pick her out of a lineup and guess her passwords, just based on what you’ve told me.”

Ward scoffed, “You’d never figure out her passwords. She’s some sort of tech-slash-computer wizard.”

“Ohhhh!  What that a compliment?” Trip crowed.

“A comment.”

“A kind one.”

“You’re crazy,” Ward said, grabbing the ball and twisting past Trip to make the shot.  “Now who’s distracted?”

Trip laughed at him.  “Whatever you say, man.”

 

Ward told himself Trip didn’t know what he was talking about, but somehow his words lingered in his mind, even while he was squeezing honey onto the saran wrap.  By the time Fitz had to shimmy down the drainpipe to make it to his final, they still hadn’t quite disappeared.  But when Fitz strong armed him down the hall and practically shoved him on the couch next to Skye, any positive feelings Ward may have been harboring were buried in a hurry.

“NO.”  Jemma held up a finger as Skye opened her mouth to complain.  “Sit and be quiet.  It’s your turn to listen.”

Ward snickered under his breath at Skye being chastised.  

Fitz turned on him, “Nothing from you either!  You two are out of control and it stops now.”

“But she started it!”

“It’s all his fault!”

“ENOUGH!” Jemma yelled.  “Fitz is right.  This is over.  Declare a winner, call it a draw, whatever you want.  But you’re starting to cause collateral damage and that’s decidedly less amusing.  So, if you can’t or won’t make nice, at least shake hands and go your separate ways.”  

Skye had the grace to look a little ashamed as she glanced at Fitz and apologized for him nearly missing his final. When she turned to look at Ward though, her expression turned faintly mutinous and she sat there with clenched teeth until Jemma’s glare wore her down and she finally stuck her hand out towards him.

Ward looked at the proffered hand with an exaggerated disdain, enjoying the way that he could see the tension building in Skye and could practically hear her teeth grinding as she stared him down. Then Fitz jabbed him hard in the side and Ward finally shook her hand, just once and firmly.  
     
Jemma and Fitz both beamed at the brokering of peace, but Ward and Skye just rolled their eyes in almost perfect unison as they stood up to leave the common room.

Ward walked away with the strangest mix of emotions swirling in him. As much as she drove him insane, there was something about Skye, and the ridiculous prank war, that brought something out in him that he had never felt before.

But then she pushed her way past him as she stomped down the hallway, clipping his elbow with her book bag, and Ward felt his feelings towards the pint sized brunette settle firmly back into the irritated column. It was definitely for the best if they avoided each other from then on.

 

Abject horror flowed through him when he noticed her glaring at him all through that first Sociology class.  He had thought he would be able to avoid her for the rest of his time there, but here she was, right in his face, swearing to make his life hell.  And so she did.  Every time he dared to open his mouth, she was there, challenging him back, no matter what he said.  Half the time he was tempted (and more than once he indulged) to throw something out, that she had argued on behalf of the day before, just to see if she’d take the bait and argue back, just because it was him.  She did and he enjoyed a not insignificant amount of smug satisfaction over it.  The smugness quickly vanished when Professor Coulson paired them up for the final project and they were forced to actually work together.  The many hours spent in the library, arguing and barely containing their shouts, were interspersed with incredibly productive moments where they actually worked together smoothly.  His grudging respect for her grew, even while the irritation and frustration didn’t lessen.  

Only two weeks remained until the deadline and it was late. They were both exhausted, having spent the last four hours working on their Sociology project. As they went down the library steps, Skye stumbled and lost her footing, landing hard on the pavement.

“Are you okay?” he asked, almost on instinct. He reached down to help her up, but she swatted away his hands.

“I'm fine,” she snarled. She sat on the ground, gathering up the few items that had spilled out of her bag. She sighed heavily when she saw the shattered compact. “Dammit,” she muttered under her breath.

He watched her struggle to get to her feet, but after her clear irritation with his offer of help, he wasn't about to try again.

She shakily stood and then turned to glare at him. “You just gonna stand there or are we going?”

He rolled his eyes but motioned for her to continue on.

It became apparent in about three steps that Skye wasn't getting anywhere under her own power.

“You can't walk,” he said flatly.  

“I'm doing just fine,” she growled, but the grimace on her face as she tried to put any weight on her left foot betrayed her.

“No, you're not,” he reiterated. Without another word, he bent down on one knee right in front of her.

“What are you doing, Ward? You're kinda in my way here.”

“Get on,” he instructed.

“I'm sorry, what?!”

He sighed. “You can barely move. I can't leave you out here alone at 12:30am. So either you continue being stubborn and we walk painfully slowly the rest of the way and get home in time for our morning classes or you jump on my back and I carry you back to the dorm and we get back there before graduation.”

For once, Skye was silent, shocked by his offer.  She just stared at him.

“Are you going to answer or should I get comfortable down here?”

She shook her head as if to clear it. “Um, uh, okay then,” she answered in a timid voice.

“Alright. Will you please climb on now?” he asked brusquely.

She nodded and scrambled onto his back. He stood, as if her weight was nothing (which is exactly what it was, did she even eat?), and proceeded to make their way to the dorm.

When he deposited her at her room door, she looked up shyly, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Thanks, Ward,” she offered in a quiet voice.

He simply nodded once. “See you tomorrow. And put some ice on that ankle!”

“Yes, Commandant,” she snarked back with a mock salute and hopped into the room.

He felt exasperated. Must she be so difficult?! But there was a tiny part of him that had enjoyed when she was clinging to him. A tiny part that had shivered when her breath puffed against the back of his neck, that still felt the warmth of her arms around his shoulders. (A part he promptly ignored and instead dredged up all the reasons he'd disliked her for months.)

 

As the end of the semester, and the class, drew closer, Ward found himself at a confusing loss. At first he had thought his feelings towards Skye had settled somewhere around grudging acceptance with a touch of unwanted attraction. But now...he looked forward to seeing her in class, he realized. He enjoyed spending hours bickering with her over the way to phrase a simple concept in their assignment. He had even begun to like the way she joked and prodded at him until she managed to draw a reluctant smile out of him. He’d never really had anyone work so hard to make him laugh before.

And the two of them really did work well together, as they showcased in their final presentation (with Professor Coulson practically beaming at the two of them), their previous arguments turned into a kind of perfectly timed repartee. So it was definitely a surprise to him how much he realized he would miss their arguing that had somehow turned into banter over the course of the semester.

Especially as he faced the looming reality of going home for the Summer, and being stuck with his family again for three months after being free of them for so long. As the final days of the semester drew closer, Ward found himself dreading the break more and more. Fitz noticed the change in him, even if he didn’t know the cause, and seemed to dedicate the final week of the two of them being roommates to trying to drag Ward out of his funk.

Which is how he found himself in a toga, surrounded by his drunk classmates.

Ward had no interest in going to the end of year party their dorm was hosting, but Fitz proved to be surprisingly scary when he set his mind on something and so now Ward found himself tugging on the sheet awkwardly, wondering for the fifteenth time that night how he’d let himself get dragged here.  It was a  _toga party_.  If that wasn’t a college cliche, he didn’t know what was.  

“Careful there,” a voice said from his right.  “One wrong pull and we’ll all be getting an eyeful.  I don’t know if there’s enough alcohol here to bleach that sight from my brain.”

“Ha, ha, very funny, Skye,” Ward rolled his eyes, turning to look at her.  Not only did she have a pink toga on, which magically hugged her body perfectly, but she even had a legitimate flower crown.  And that challenging smirk he’d become so familiar with.  “Don’t you have someone else to go bother?”

“Why would I do that when you’re right here?” she volleyed back.

Ward groaned.  “Seriously, there are like 70 other people here.  I’m sure there’s someone that would appreciate your particular brand of annoying.  I thought we agreed to go our separate ways once the project was turned in.”

Something flickered through Skye’s eyes that he couldn’t identify, but it disappeared so quickly he wondered if he had imagined it.  “So we did,” she said, her previous confidence restored.  She extended her hand towards him.  “The semester is over, tomorrow we all move out for the summer, and we never have to see each other again.  Have a good life, Ward.”

He felt a jolt of electricity pass from her hand to his as she gripped his hand in a firm shake, but Skye seemed completely unaffected.

“But you know you’re gonna miss me,” she added, winking.

As she grinned at him before turning away and melting back into the crowd of the party, Ward felt a deep tug of longing inside him, but it felt so foreign to him that it would be a long time before he fully understood what the feelings she unleashed in him really meant.


	2. Sophomore Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _He wanted to feel annoyed at the idea of the universe thrusting he and Skye back into the same inescapable orbit once again. He wanted to say that the only thing he felt at the idea of seeing her again was irritation. But it wasn’t. Mixed in there, undeniably, there was a strong dose of anticipation._
> 
> It's Sophomore year and Ward can't seem to keep away from Skye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has one of the first scenes we envisioned and wrote. It's full of fun and ridiculousness. Not to mention Ward's side of things on an important event.

“Nobody asked you to get me attached to you”

There was a small part of Ward that honestly kind of expected to lose touch with Fitz and Trip after Freshman year, that those friendships wouldn’t be strong enough to survive the summer break and new classes and living arrangements in Sophomore year. Then Fitz called him the first week in July however, to complain about the weather in Glasgow and his idiot cousins and did Ward have his dorm assignment for next year yet? It was so strange for Ward, to have someone who actively reached out to him to hold onto a friendship between them, who actually wanted him in their life. Fitz didn’t seem to require a lot of response though, he always seemed happy enough to fill in Ward’s silences with his constant chatter. It had driven Ward insane when they first met, and he couldn’t imagine how they would both make to the end of the year alive, but now here he was, happily listening to Fitz reenact an entire conversation between his cousins to demonstrate his misery at being stuck with them.  
So when he got back to school at the end of summer, he was content in the knowledge that at least one of his friendships had survived the year. And when he ran into Trip at the student bookstore the week before classes started, the other man greeted him happily and convinced him to come along to poker night at his friend Hunter’s that night.

Ward had met Trip’s friend Hunter a couple of times the year before, mostly just in passing. The loudmouthed Brit seemed like he might be a bit too much to handle, but somehow he had this knack for making a fool of himself and putting everyone else at ease. No one was focusing on you when Hunter was too busy having to explain why he had to wear a bonnet and apron for three days around campus. Ward wasn’t entirely sure how well he would cope with an entire evening in a confined space with the guy, but he figured it was worth a shot and it might be fun. He took Fitz with him, thinking that having someone else there he knew and felt comfortable with would be a good idea. He had forgotten about Fitz’s weirdness with Trip, however.

Fitz spent the first half hour eyeing Trip suspiciously and trying to one-up him at every shot. But after Fitz finally won a round and Trip lost spectacularly, then congratulated Fitz genuinely, the Scot seemed to relax a bit. Which in turn helped Ward relax and actually enjoy the company of the other guys. It felt foreign to be so….chill with friends, but it felt good too. It was just the four of them for the evening, except for when Hunter’s girlfriend Bobbi dropped by to pick up something. Ward found her to be smarter than he expected of someone dating Hunter, but it wasn’t like he had much room to talk, with his vast relationship experience of nothing. Still, she was fun and cheerful, and clearly didn’t take any shit from Hunter. Just as she was about to go, she said something that caught his attention. 

“Okay, I'm gonna go now. Jemma is insisting we have a girls night tonight. Movies, makeovers, the whole nine yards.”

“Jemma?” Ward asked.

“Yeah, Jemma Simmons. You know her?” Bobbi asked.

“You could say that,” Ward answered. “Mostly from her coming to work with Fitz on stuff last year.”

Trip and Fitz both snickered, causing Ward to roll his eyes at them.

“Shut up,” he said.

Bobbi looked between the guys. “I think I'm missing something here. Is there something I should know about Jemma?”

“No, no!” Ward quickly said. “Jemma is great. Good luck.”

“I'm still getting a there's-something-more vibe here. Seriously guys, what?”

“Never mind. You probably won't have to deal with her.”

Bobbi still looked skeptical. “Well, she's my roommate, so I probably will have to deal with her.”

“Uh, no, not Jemma. Ummm….” Ward started turning red as he stammered.

Trip was full out laughing at him now, before addressing Bobbi. “Girl, he's not talking about Jemma. He's talking about Skye.”

“Oh, Jemma’s friend? I met her, she seems fun. In fact, I think she's coming tonight. How did she fit into this?”

Ward huffed and got up to grab another drink from the mini fridge, firmly ignoring the laughter behind him..

Seeing as Ward wasn't going to answer, Bobbi turned to Trip. He happily explained, “Ward has a thing for her.”

“I do NOT!” Ward yelled.

“You definitely do, Ward,” Fitz added.

“Not you too, Fitz!”

Fitz turned and leveled his roommate with a stare. “Oh I'm sorry, who was is for that I spent 3 hours on a night before a midterm calibrating a singing fish for? It wasn't to entertain Simmons or Trip.”

“It wasn't to entertain Skye either. It was toirritate her. Which it worked spectacularly, I might add,” Ward defended himself. 

Trip turned back to Bobbi. “Ward got suckered into a prank war with Skye last year and it reached epic proportions. She was out for blood, but I'm pretty sure he was out for something else.” The wink was just too much.

Ward jumped in, once again. “Can you stop? Look, we didn't like each other, we tried to piss each other off, we reached a truce. Now I'm going to live my life in peace because I don't have to take any classes with her this year. End of story. I don't know why you insist there's more to it.”

“You just keep telling yourself that,” Trip teased. “She totally got under his skin and he won't admit that there's more than just irritation there. Can't fake that kind of hate.”

Bobbi looked rather amused by the story being revealed to her. “Well, good luck to to then Ward. If she's friends with Jemma and you're hanging with Hunter, chances are we'll all end up hanging out.”

He glowered but wisely kept his mouth shut. He wanted to feel annoyed at the idea of the universe thrusting he and Skye back into the same inescapable orbit once again. He wanted to say that the only thing he felt at the idea of seeing her again was irritation. But it wasn’t. Mixed in there, undeniably, there was a strong dose of anticipation.

 

Of course, when they finally are thrust together in a social setting it’s like throwing a match at a pool filled with gasoline. Their friends all observe the two of them with expressions that vary between horror and highly entertained, and Ward is pretty sure that Hunter and Trip have some kind of bet going about how long it’s going to be before the sexual tension finally breaks them. Ward would hate them, but he can’t actually disagree. There is something about Skye, the way she affects him, that he has never experienced before. She drives him insane, but in a way that is almost addictive. He craves the way he finally has someone who pushes him, who draws out sides of himself he never knew were there, someone who matches him step for stubborn step. As much as he resists, he knows deep down that fighting the pull of attraction he feels is a war he probably lost a long time ago. (Doesn’t mean he isn’t going to struggle awhile longer though.)

 

Bobbi insisted on Karaoke for her birthday. Ward reluctantly agreed to come out for the night, but he firmly drew the line at getting up on stage and singing. Skye made a face and muttered something about him really needing to do something about that stick up his ass, but Bobbi just patted him on the shoulder and said it was fine.

Bobbi started them off with a surprisingly good version of ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman’, followed by all the girls and Trip belting out ‘Wannabe’ enthusiastically, if off-key.

While he watched the rest of the group dance around on the stage and try to outdo each other with ridiculous expressions, Ward found himself wondering what exactly had happened to his firm intention not to get close to anyone at college. He was going to come in and work hard, focus all his attention on his work and not allow for distractions. And now here he was in a seedy bar listening to Hunter belt out an exceptionally painful rendition of ‘Sexual Healing’.

But somehow, when Skye grabbed him by the hand and declared that he absolutely had to sing at least one song as she dragged him up to the microphone where Fitz and Trip were waiting, he let her pull him along even though it would have taken very little effort on his part to shake her off.

Skye chose the song, looking over at him with what could only be described as an evil smirk as the music started. There was something about that challenging glint in her eye, the way she looked at him like she was sure he would never loosen up enough to actually go all out with it, and he couldn’t help rising to the bait. (Like always.)

He heard the pulsing beat of the song starting and recognized it right away. Skye had played it on repeat during Freshman year, he could still remember being driven insane by it when they were working on their Sociology final. From the look on her face, he knew she was positive he wouldn’t know it and was just waiting to see him go down in flames. Little did she know....

“Come on, come on, turn the radio on. It's Friday night and I won't be long,” he sang, looking straight at her. “Gotta do my hair, I put my makeup on. It's Friday night and I won't be long.” He even pantomimed applying makeup.

Skye’s jaw dropped, even while Jemma, Kara, and Bobbi whooped and hollered next to her. 

Trip and Fitz jumped in on the next line, and Ward couldn’t help the smug look he sent Skye’s way. She was still looking stunned, but there was definitely some amusement creeping across her features as the song went on.

Beside him, Trip was really getting into the song, dancing and acting out the song. Ward found himself joining in and playing it up more, without even realizing it. “Baby, I don’t need dollar bills to have fun tonight!”

“I LOVE CHEAP THRILLS!” the girls started yelling back, in time with Fitz singing it on stage. It served to hype up Fitz even more, his eyes lighting up when he heard them. The energy from the three men on stage was infectious. By the end of the song, the whole crowd was joining in too. 

Fitz looked positively giddy when they stepped off the stage, patting Ward on the back far too enthusiastically as he chattered a mile a minute before getting distracted by the sight of Jemma and veering off through the crowd towards her.

Skye, meanwhile, was waiting for Ward with a broad grin.

“Didn’t think I had it in me, did you?” he said, sauntering towards her.

“You weren’t too bad up there,” she conceded. “And don’t think I didn’t record that on my phone for future blackmail purposes.”

Ward just chuckled, looking back to the stage where Mack was currently rocking out to classic AC/DC. There was just something about Skye, he could never back down from a challenge from her, but he also found himself in situations he never would have dreamed of. And somehow, he always ended up having fun. ”Because of her,” a little voice whispered to him. He promptly squashed it down, because he wasn’t about to give her credit for that. 

 

The party was fun, everyone was feeling comfortable and having a good time. He’s pretty sure it was Hunter who suggested Spin The Bottle and he remembers raising an eyebrow at the way Bobbi enthusiastically jumped on board. But quickly any concerns he had were brushed away when he saw how hilarious the game could be. Somehow being paired up to kiss Fitz and seeing Jemma’s quick flare of jealousy was amusing enough to relax him. But several rounds later, he got a taste of his own medicine when Trip spun and it landed on Skye, and Ward clenched his jaw before he even realized it. He forced himself to loosen his muscles and he looked away while the two of them met in the middle. Then the universe once again decided to make a point to him, a blessing or a curse, he wasn’t sure. 

Skye spun the bottle and it pointed squarely at him. Excitement and anticipation flashed through him before he could even recognize them.

Skye looked almost comically surprised as she looked from the bottle to him and then back down again, as though it might have changed direction on its own. Ward could feel a smirk forming on his lips without even meaning to, a defiant tilt to his chin as he stared her down. And he honestly was not sure he could deny that he did it simply because he knew she’d never back down from a challenge from him. Because he wanted to kiss her, with a sudden intensity that almost took his breath away. But when she actually leaned across the circle to meet him, he was still somehow taken by surprise. (And doesn’t that just sum up our entire relationship perfectly, Ward thought wryly.)

Then her hands were clenched in his shirt and her lips were on his, parting on a gasp as his tongue brushed against hers, and any possibility of coherent thought was up in smoke as the taste of her mouth short circuited his goddamn brain. He felt like he was falling into her, the world falling away around them and all he could focus on was just how right this felt.

But then she pulled away from him, a stunned look on her face as she settled back on her heels. But then she was leaving the room as quickly as she can. Then she was smiling at some other guy while holding hands, and Ward was left to realize that whatever feeling of belonging he might have felt when they kissed was entirely in his head.

So he tried to forget it. Endured nights out with the group where Lincoln tagged along and Ward tried hard not to think about the reasons for his irrational urge to punch the guy. The harsh feeling that burned through him at the way the guy smiled at Skye left a bitter taste in his mouth and had him clenching his fists in frustration. He just hoped that if he refused to call the feeling jealousy then maybe it wouldn’t be.

(But the way she kissed him, that stupid game, their friends hollering in the background, everything falling away until all he knew was the feel of her mouth on his. That stunned look in her eyes, but the heat that lingered underneath it, the heat that his pounding blood called for. And then her running. And then her in another guy’s arms, smiling and laughing and… Yeah. It was jealousy.)

 

The idea of calling Kara a rebound didn’t sit comfortably, because she was so much more than that. But he couldn’t deny that the timing worked. He needed a distraction, he needed not to care about Skye, and Kara was there and she was amazing and it seemed like a good idea.

Kara Palamas had been in plenty of Ward’s classes since the beginning of Freshman year, with both of them majoring in Criminal Justice, and with her being Bobbi’s friend he found himself spending more time with her outside of class as his second year of college wore on. And then one day not long into the second semester he happened upon her crying in the library, and after pushing through his initial instinct to run, he wound up spending the next hour listening to her talk about her parent’s sudden announcement over Christmas that they were getting divorced. While he couldn’t necessarily relate to her loss of the family unit she had always taken such comfort in, Ward could definitely relate to the feelings of loss and displacement in the world when you didn’t have that anymore. They began hanging out more after that, outside of class and even away from the rest of the group - grabbing coffee between classes or a quick vending machine dinner before all night study sessions.

Kara was a breath of fresh air in his life. She was sharp and witty, always ready with a shrewd joke, but undemanding. It was so easy being around her. He wondered if maybe that was a sign there was something more between him. It wasn’t like he had that much experience dating, but every other relationship in his life seemed to take more work. So, if it was simple and comfortable being around Kara, shouldn’t he want to be with her? It was that line of thinking that led him to ask her out right after Spring Break. She almost seemed surprised when he asked, but agreed nonetheless. The next few weeks were fun and nice. The time they spent together was always comfortable, it didn’t demand much from him, but something nagged at him. Even when he kissed her, it felt more like he was doing it because he thought he should, not necessarily that he really wanted to. But there was nothing wrong, no reason to re-examine anything with her, so he just figured it was just him and if he kept doing all the expected things, his feelings would catch up soon. 

Being with Kara was easy, she didn’t drive him insane in the way that Skye did. Didn’t push every single one of his buttons in a never ending quest to send him to a mental ward before his 25th birthday. Didn’t challenge his every thought and opinion. Didn’t try to assert her dominance or superiority at every turn. It felt safe, almost. He cared about her, but he didn’t have that same feeling of being completely exposed when he was with her. The idea of being with her didn’t feel quite so much like diving blindly into the abyss, he never felt as vulnerable as he had felt in those flickering moments of almost that he had experienced with Skye.

But then he found out Skye broke up with Lincoln and he felt that flip in his stomach, and after that he had a hard time looking Kara in the eye without feeling like he was lying to her. He spent the next week trying to push those thoughts as far from his mind as he could, but the doubt had wiggled its way in and he found himself second guessing their relationship. Maybe he really wasn’t ready to be with anyone, maybe Kara deserved someone who could give her more than he could. Someone who was actually able to be all in with her emotionally. Someone who didn’t approach every conversation with his guard up, like it might be used against him at any time, the way he’d felt since he could remember.

The weight of that thought followed him around for another week before he finally decided to do something about it, for both of them. He asked her to come by his room, somehow managing to avoid using the phrase “We need to talk”. But Kara sensed his heavy mood as soon as she came in and sat down next to him on the bed.

The muscle in his jaw flexed as he struggled to get the words out. “Kara, I just-”

“Grant,” she interrupted, laying her hand on his arm. “I get it. It’s okay.”

He looked up in disbelief. “It is?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “It is. This just isn’t quite clicking for you. Honestly? It’s not for me either. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a great guy. But I don’t think all the pieces are fitting for either one of us. And we’re too young and let’s face it, way too awesome, to try and force them to fit.”

He huffed a laugh and looked down at his hands. Turning to face her again he said, “Thanks, Kara.”

“Of course, Grant.” Her smile reassured him and he felt a burden ease off his shoulders. “Plus, I think we both know there is someone else who occupies just as much space in your mind as I do.” The wink she gave him was pure teasing and sass.

Ward groaned, “Not this again!”

“Oh yes, this again!” Kara replied. “No point in denying it, dude. Like anyone else has ever sparked that much passion in you. Ever.”

“It’s not passion, it’s pure irritation and frustration.”

“Sexual frustration,” Kara remarked flippantly, then tossed her hair. “Go ahead and convince yourself, if you like living in denial. But it’s obviously there.”

Ward made a face of disgust. “Are you seriously breaking up with me and then telling me to go after someone else? Someone I don’t even like?”

“First of all, you’re breaking up with me. Second of all, you like her a lot more than you’re willing to admit. And third of all, yes, that is exactly what is happening here.”

“You’re twisted,” he said, with no fire in his voice at all. It was a rather fond tone.

“But I’m right.” She jostled his shoulder. “Plus, like I said, I get it. It’s not quite there for either of us. So I’m fine. You’re fine. Might as well move on.”

 

Things settled surprisingly easy in the wake of their breakup, and the way he and Kara slipped back into their friendship made it even clearer to him that that was probably what worked best between the two of them.

As his friend however, Kara seemed to make it her mission to get him to accept that he was secretly head over heels for Skye.

The worst thing was he was no longer entirely sure that she (and Trip, and Jemma, and Fitz) were entirely wrong.

As much as the idea of it actually drove him crazy, he was having a harder and harder time insisting that the only things he felt for Skye were irritation and annoyance.

She pushed him in a way that no one else did, brought out a side of him that no one else ever had.

It wasn’t like he accepted his feelings happily though, if anything it was almost like his attraction to her came with a healthy side of belligerent resistance. But it didn’t seem to matter in the end, she had marched her way into his head and his heart and he didn’t seem to stand a chance at evicting her.

Accepting his attraction didn’t mean he had any intention of acting on it, though.

Skye didn’t see him like that, and Ward honestly wasn’t sure the two of them would ever actually survive a relationship with each other. And he knew that he would never stand a chance of hiding from her, of keeping her at a distance the way he had managed with Kara, even with his friends.

So the safest thing to do, he decided, was to keep his feelings to himself. It would be the best thing for both of them.


	3. Junior year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junior year and we finally find out what happened on Halloween.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In all honesty, this chapter is what spawned the rest of the fic. Some of this was among the very first that we wrote and helped set the tone for the entire story. And some of it was just too fun to resist including. We hope you have as much fun reading as we did writing! Please let us know what you think, even if (and especially if) it's incoherent keyboard smashing. ;-)

_“In fact you tricked me. And I wasn’t trying to fall in love, but oh, you pushed me.”_

Living in the same dorm as Skye, and the rest of the girls, again was actually kind of fun. Ward was eternally grateful for his private single room, but it was nice hanging out with them all in the common room, going on random adventures on the spur of the moment. It wasn’t something he was used to, being that impetuous, but there was something about the group of friends he had somehow found himself with that made him feel safe and comfortable. Made him feel like actually acting like stereotypical college kid and letting loose a little for the first time in his life.

Somehow though, it always led back to Skye. To that attraction that he was having a harder and harder time trying to downplay even to himself.

Like the night they drove to the 7-Eleven two towns over because Fitz was craving Krispy Kreme and spent so long talking about it that he dragged Skye and Hunter down with him. Somehow that meant that everyone had to go, and they ended up with nine of them crammed into Hunter’s ancient Cadillac, at 1am, on a mission for doughnuts. The car was a boat under normal circumstances, but even so, they were pushing it a little to fit all nine of them in at once. Jemma and Fitz squeezed onto the front bench seat with Bobbi and Hunter, while Ward, Trip, Mack and Kara were crammed in the back, Kara wedged in between and half sitting on both Trip and Mack. Skye had had to run back to the room for something, he couldn’t even remember what it was now, just the way she dove into the backseat without looking as Hunter lay on the horn and hollered at her to hurry up because he needed a chocolate glaze, goddammit! It wasn’t until she pulled the door shut behind her that she seemed to realize she was sitting on Ward’s lap, and before she could open her mouth to say a word Hunter was already pulling out of the parking space so suddenly that Skye was flung backwards and Ward had to wrap an arm around her waist to hold her steady.

Hunter’s car was pretty much one solid bump away from literally falling to pieces in the middle of the road, so he was swerving around every single pothole or obstacle no matter how minor.  That meant that Ward had to keep his arm around Skye to hold her steady and keep her from flying across the car the entire journey.  Which also meant that she was all he could sense.  The way they were packed in the backseat like sardines meant he couldn’t even turn his head without banging into someone else.  Skye filled his entire field of vision: her hair, her smile, the slight look of terror ( _and what is that other look?_ ) that appeared every time Hunter made another sharp turn and she almost went flying, if it wasn’t for Ward’s arms holding her in place.  

“He’s going to kill us, isn’t he?” she whispered in his ear.  

Ward chuckled back, “I had hoped for a more dignified end than this, but I guess it’s too late now.”  

He noticed she had changed shampoos, from a coconut to a citrus scent that somehow fits her even better.  And when the hell did he start to know what shampoo she used?  Alas, the shampoo did not taste anywhere close to as good as it smelled, which he discovered when she whipped her head to tease Bobbi and her locks ended up in his mouth.  She shifted slightly on his lap and suddenly all he could process was that her jeans were really soft and she was much warmer than he expected underneath the denim.  

By the time they finally got to the 7-Eleven, Ward practically shoved Skye out the car as soon as they had stopped. She sent him a weird look as they all trooped through the automated door, but he honestly didn’t know exactly what would have happened if she was in that close proximity for any longer.

(Then a smear of chocolate icing stuck to her bottom lip when she bit into her donut with a look of reverence and the urge he had to lean over and lick it off was so strong it shocked him.)

 

He almost didn’t go to the Halloween party, but he knew everyone else would be there and he’d never hear the end of it if he didn’t show up.  So he threw together a half-assed costume and dragged himself there.  As seemed to be the case with them, Skye zeroed in on him within moments of arriving and made it her mission to tease him.  Except now he teased back.  And so went the evening.  Jokes almost bordering on flirting and tequila shots, more her than him, though.  

By the time they left the party, Skye was in that exuberant drunk stage, skipping along the footpath with her arm linked through Ward’s and declaring that it was the perfect weather for night swimming. Once they reached the dorm however, her enthusiasm had faded and Ward was practically holding her upright with their still linked arms.

The two of them had lagged behind everyone else.  The rest of the group was already piled into the elevator and waiting for them, but Skye pulled back hard when Ward tried to pick up their pace.

“Nope. Stairs,” she insisted, waving at the others to let the doors close.

“Skye,” Ward looked at her in exasperation. “I am not carrying you up three flights of stairs.”

“Ward, I’m warning you, if you put me that shiny metal moving coffin, this night is gonna end with me hurling on your shoes.”

Ward sighed, but acquiesced, having absolutely no desire to conclude the evening with vomit. The two of them made their to the stairwell, Ward staggering slightly as Skye leaned more of her weight onto him suddenly.

“Skye, I’m not kidding.  I’m not carrying you.  I will leave you right here in this stairwell to sleep it off,” he warned, propping her back on her feet.

“No, you won’t,” she sing-songed back at him.  “You wouldn’t abandon me.  You couldn’t do it even when you didn’t like me at all.”

Ward rolled his eyes (apparently all of his muscles were getting a workout tonight) and readjusted his grip around her waist.  

Between the leather corset she was wearing that did amazingly distracting things to her cleavage, and the way she seemed to be absentmindedly caressing his bicep, Ward had to shake himself to drag his attention back to her words.

“Huh?”

Luckily Skye seemed to be entirely oblivious to his wandering attention as she continued to babble something about the virtues of sour candy.

( _Or maybe not entirely oblivious, because he could swear he caught a flicker of a satisfied smirk on her lips when he faltered after her breast brushed against his arm._ )

They were somewhere between the second and third floors when Skye stumbled over a step. Ward’s free arm swung out to catch her and he settled her on her feet on the step above him, his arms still around her in a sudden embrace. The change in height meant that her face was almost even with his, and Ward was suddenly very aware of his hand resting on her hip as she stared at him intently, all traces of her earlier laughter replaced with something he couldn’t quite identify. He could swear she almost looked like she was about to lean in and close the distance between them, his gaze darted down to her lips and he felt his breath catch entirely without his permission. His body swayed towards hers unconsciously, drawn to her like a magnet as he remembered their kiss last spring.

But then her expression changed into something much more like the irritation he was used to from the early days of their acquaintance.

"When did you turn into a real person?  One with really really ridiculously good looking cheekbones."

He rolled his eyes at her ridiculousness.  This was more familiar territory. (Although her commenting on his cheekbones wasn’t something he was as used to.)  "I've always been a real person, Skye."

"No you weren't!” she cried.  “You were a robot!  One that was programmed to torture me!"

“Like you weren’t doing everything in your power to drive me crazy too?”  He raised an eyebrow at her.  

Skye smirked, even as she wobbled on her feet.  “And I was good at it too.  Do you know how hilarious your face looked when all those ping pong balls fell out?  OH!  I think I still have the picture on my phone!”  She grabbed the phone from her back pocket, but as she swiped through the gallery, her equilibrium took a hike and she almost face planted right into him.

Sighing, Ward gave in to the inevitable and leaned over to sweep her up in his arms to carry her the rest of the way up the stairs. Skye yelped as her feet left the ground, looking up at him in surprise at the sudden movement.

“I thought you weren’t going to carry me?” The smugness in her tone was nearly enough to have him drop her back to her feet. Instead he tightened his hold on her and started climbing the steps again, marvelling a little at how little she weighed. Her personality was so big at times that it was easy to forget what a munchkin she really was.

“You were taking too long,” he finally replied brusquely, ignoring how good she felt in his arms. He had done such a good job of blocking out any memory of their kiss last spring, but having her so close is bringing it all screaming back in technicolor. Skye’s grip around his shoulders tightened as he stumbled over a step, distracted completely by the memory of the tiny noise she made when he deepened the kiss, and it was too much. And now, she was so close, so warm in his arms with her head was resting on his shoulder, and she was overwhelming his senses.

“You smell good, too,” Skye said as she pressed her face against the curve of his shoulder, and Ward barely suppressed the shiver that her breath against his throat sent through him.

She sounded irritated about that also, and Ward almost felt like he was supposed to apologize.

She huffed in frustration and the pungent scent of tequila hit him square in the face.  Somehow that settled him as he reminded himself that she was unlikely to remember a thing the next morning ( _and ignored the small stab of disappointment that that thought brought_ ).

By the time they finally made it to the third floor, Ward noticed that Skye had gone quiet during his distraction, and when he glanced down at her face he realized that she was actually falling asleep in his arms, a small smile on her face as she snuggled further into his shoulder. Ward’s arms tightened instinctively, and before he could think the urge through enough to talk himself out of it, he leaned down and pressed his lips against her temple. Skye sighed contentedly, rubbing her cheek against his shirt as her fingers tightened against his shoulders.

And then she started snoring.

Kara was waiting for them at the door to the girls’ suite, and she led the way into her and Skye’s room, pulling back the blankets for Ward to lay Skye down in her bed. Her arms tightened around his neck when he tried to stand up again, so that he was stuck hunched over the bed, almost falling on top of her. Skye’s grip was surprisingly strong for someone who had been seemingly unconscious only a few seconds earlier.

Her breath was warm and tickled against his skin as she sleepily murmured, “Thanks, Ward.”

Ward stilled for a moment, suddenly painfully aware of how warm and soft Skye feels beneath him and of the fact that his ex-girlfriend is standing right behind him.

“You’re welcome, Skye,” he managed, and her arms finally released him as she rolled onto her side and started snoring again.

When Ward stepped back and met Kara’s gaze, he found her smirking at him broadly.

“So,” she said smugly. “Still nothing there at all?”

Ward rolled his eyes and she laughed in response, patting him on the shoulder.

“You know,” he began, glancing at her wryly as she stepped around him to pull Skye’s shoes off and tuck the blankets around her. “This whole matchmaking thing you’re trying to do really isn’t normal ex-girlfriend behavior.”

Kara just laughed at him, “Since I’m like, your only ex-girlfriend, I don’t know how much stock can really be put in your opinion on that front.   _And_  you guys are two of my favorite people on earth and you’re perfect for each other. Seriously, no one else would ever put up with either one of you. Once you guys finally get your heads out of your asses and realize that, the world will be a much more peaceful place.”

 

Things started to change after that. He had been infuriated by Skye and attracted to her in fairly equal measure for the last two years, but after they spent the Winter break together, after their lonely little Christmas that was the best one he had ever had, they actually settled into being genuine friends. Since coming to school, Ward had found friends, real friends, for the first time in his life. He had Fitz, and Trip, and Kara, even Hunter could be surprisingly understanding and insightful. But Skye was the first person he had ever known who just understood what his childhood had done to him, without him having to reveal every ugly detail. She just got it.

Sometimes he wondered if that was part of what had caused the two of them to clash so sharply when they first met - that they both came here in a way to hide from who they used to be, only to come face to face with someone who mirrored themselves in a way that was so intimately raw. Gradually over time though, he found that understanding comforting, like she knew what he wanted to hide and was perfectly willing to let him do so if he needed to. But she was also someone he didn’t ever have to explain things to, she knew it all from her own past too.

 

To give himself as much independence from his family as he could, Ward applied for a work-study job in his Junior year. The work itself was easy, if a little repetitive and boring, sorting and filing student documents. Pretty much the only issue was his supervisor; Skye’s creepy roommate from last year, Raina.

Now though, he could add Lincoln working at the same work-study office job to the list of things Ward never expected to happen.  When he walked in the first day of second semester and saw the other guy sitting behind one of the desks, he wasn’t sure what to expect.  He couldn’t say he was fond of the guy, but he didn’t exactly have a solid reason to dislike him either.  It had been months since Lincoln and Skye dated and then broke up, Ward had dated Kara as well, so those flashes of jealousy had no reason to linger.  Yet, he felt awkward.  It wasn’t like he had even tried to get to know Lincoln before and from the appraising looks he’d seen from the blonde, Ward was pretty sure Lincoln knew why.  But it was inevitable that they would bond.  When the only other person in the tiny office for hours on end, scanning and filing and organizing documents, was  _Raina_ , Lincoln was a pretty solid compatriot. By the time March rolled around there was practically a sense of camaraderie between the two of them.

“Does she ever stop writing in that notebook?”  Ward whispered, leaning over to Lincoln.

“I don’t think so.  Every time I’ve seen her, she has it out,” Lincoln replied.

“What could she even be writing in there?”

“I’m not sure.  She always seems to be looking at us, so maybe she’s recording her observations of us?”

“Like what?  How many times we fill our water bottles?  Or what kind of pens we use?”

“What shirts we wear on what days of the week.”

“What flavor of Starbursts we eat first.”

“How many times we say ‘Of course, ma’am’ in a phone call.”

Across the room, Ward noticed Raina’s lips curve up into a small smile that made every hair on his arm stand on end. There was no way on earth she could have heard their muttered conversation, but there was something about her, and that godforsaken grey room, that made him question things he knew to be true. Sliding his gaze to the left, he noticed Lincoln’s gaze had followed his and the blonde was sitting ramrod straight in his hard plastic chair, discomfort clear in his features. For a long moment he continued staring over at Raina, who had clearly decided that she wasn’t being  _quite_  creepy enough already and had begun humming what sounded like a nursery rhyme under her breath, then he shuddered before leaning back to Ward.

“She’s definitely calculating the cleanest and most effective way to dispose of our bodies.”

Ward’s sudden loud snort of laughter surprised even himself. Raina swivelled around in her chair to level both guys with a calculating gaze and Ward only started laughing harder. Beside him he felt Lincoln begin to shake with laughter as well, the two of them succumbing completely when they accidentally made eye contact. Ward collapsed sideways in his chair helplessly, gripping his sides as he tried uselessly to get himself under control. He couldn’t remember laughing like this.  _Ever_. It was ridiculous. But now that it had started it wouldn’t stop. As soon as he felt the chuckles begin to subside, he caught a glimpse of Lincoln biting his own fist as he tried to rein himself in, or Raina’s snotty glare as she continued to take notes in her book.

It was like a release. He felt lighter than he could remember feeling almost ever. ( _Except for that night at karaoke, except for winter break afternoons on the couch watching bad reality tv, except for that stupid prank war._ )

The weeks continued on, developing a pattern.  Classes, studying, and the work-study job with Lincoln and Raina.  Somehow in the face of Raina’s ability to unsettle everyone around her, Lincoln and Ward became a team, keeping each other sane.  Her creepy stares never seemed to decrease; all the little comments he had heard Skye make the year before suddenly made sense.  But with someone else there, it was easier to play off and tolerate.  At the very least, they reassured each other that they weren’t crazy, that she really was slightly sinister.  And it certainly helped the days pass faster.  More than once, the two of them would leave the small, stuffy office together and grab a coffee at the student union.  Lincoln’s easy-going nature and humor made it easier to Ward to relax and enjoy himself.  One such day, they were walking out together, still laughing about Lincoln’s spot on impression of their supervisor, when he saw Skye out of the corner of his eye.  She has stopped suddenly and was staring at them across the quad.  He couldn’t decipher the look on her face as she stared at the two of them, but something about it stuck with him, something about it niggling at the back of his brain.  Not entirely sure what she was thinking, but enjoying seeing her off balance for once, he winked at her.  The wrinkle between her eyebrows got even deeper and she shook her head as she walked away.  

When she brought it up during the scavenger hunt he smirked, but there was something in the tone of her voice that made his heart beat a little harder, because there is something there. Almost like jealousy. Almost like actually putting words to this thing the two of them had been skirting around for almost three years now. For a moment he almost felt like throwing everything to the wind, saying ‘fuck it’, and finally telling her exactly how he felt. Putting it out there between them in a way they couldn’t avoid anymore. But Hunter and Bobbi ruined the moment and the cowardly part of Ward felt relief at the reprieve.

_(She never gave him back the t-shirt he loaned her after the fountain though.)_


	4. Senior year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Of course it’s going to be different! It’s our Senior year, Ward! It’s going to be special, even if we have to make it that way ourselves.”_
> 
> And boy, do they.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, this chapter. It packs an emotional punch. But it's also possibly my favorite. So many sides of the Skyeward relationship are displayed here and Ward's perspective on the big events is finally shared.

_“And I wasn’t trying to melt this heart of iron,  
But the way you hold me makes the old me pass away."_

“Well, speak of the devil,” a voice carried over from the open doorway.

Ward looked up with a grin.  “I could say the same thing about you.”

“You could, but you’d be wrong,” Skye replied, bouncing into his room and dropping on his bed.  “So, here we are again.  Ready for one last year?  The grand finale, if you will.”

Ward shrugged.  “I don’t know that this year is going to be all that different.  Class, studying, trying to keep Bobbi from killing Hunter, and hoping Fitzsimmons doesn’t blow up the Chem building.”

“Of course it’s going to be different!  It’s our  _Senior_  year, Ward!  It’s going to be special, even if we have to make it that way ourselves.”

“Whatever you say, Skye,” he said affectionately. “Is this where I ask you what you did all summer, even though I already know?”

“Don't think you know all my secrets, Grant Ward.” She wagged her finger at him. “I've got one or two up my sleeve.”

“That's it? Just one or two?” he teased back, then flopped onto the bed next to her. When he did so, he noticed a weird looking parcel behind her. “Like this? Is this one of your secrets?”

Skye glanced behind her to see the plastic wrap covered item. “That? No, not a secret. Just some cookies. Figured senior year needed something special to mark the occasion,” she replied nonchalantly.

“You made cookies?” he asked doubtfully. “You? Queen of the Microwave Entree?”

“Shut up,” she growled, playfully bumping his shoulder. “See if I ever make them for you again.”

Ward laughed. “Thanks. I'm sure I'll manage to choke one or two of them down.”

The amusement was dancing in her eyes, even as she narrowed them. “You're a jerk, you know that, right?”

“Yep, totally aware.” He gave her a wink.

She rolled her eyes, then pulled herself up with a sigh. “I just came to drop those off. I have to get back and stop Kara from putting up that truly awful Justin Bieber poster. I'll never be able to sleep with the Biebs staring at me all year.”

Ward chuckled and motioned to the door. “Better go stop her then. See you later?”

“Count on it. You know,” she said thoughtfully, looking around his room, reminding him of the first time they met.   _(Except this time it didn’t irritate him.  This time he hoped she liked what she saw.)_   “It's really lucky you have a single room. I'm going to need somewhere to escape when those girls go insane.”

“Skye, I have a single room so  _I_  can be alone. It's not your escape pod.”

Skye patted him on the cheek mockingly. “That's so cute that you think that. Bye, Robot!”

Ward simply rolled his eyes at her antics as she waltzed away. He didn't deny that the thought of her hanging out in his room ( _with him_ ) was actually a rather pleasant one. He picked up the plate of cookies and peeled away a few of the layers so he could snag one. As he pulled it out, he realized these were snickerdoodles, his favorite cookie. He remembered mentioning it off handedly to her once last year, to which she promptly retorted that a snickerdoodle was a respectable cookie, but didn't have enough to it to be someone's favorite. Clearly she had remembered as well. Something funny settled in his chest. Someone made him his favorite cookies, just because. Not a bribe, not a cruel trick, just….because. No strings attached. And not just anyone,  _Skye_.  That longing that had become familiar flared up again. Ward scrubbed at his face and groaned. This year was already shaping up to be a doozy.

 

He knew going to the party was a bad idea even before he set foot in the over crowded basement. He had spent the entire afternoon in his room, alone, after seeing Christian’s Senate run announcement online, stuck in an unwilling flashback tour of all the worst moments of his past. Every ugly thing Christian had done, everything his parents had either ignored or encouraged, every awful thing  _he_  had ever done. Since coming to school, he hadn’t been home to visit his family since Thanksgiving his Sophomore year. The distance had made it easier to pretend that those years were further from him than they really were, like there was a clearly marked line in his life of before and after, like he didn’t carry that ugly darkness inside him.

He should have stayed in his room.

A group of bulky guys pushed by him, one of them stumbling into Ward briefly, laughing drunkenly as he staggered and tried to regain his footing. Ward shoved him back harder than he needed to, under the guise of walking past, but he could feel the anger sparking under the surface, his fingers curling into fists and aching with the need to hit something,  _someone_. He walked by quickly, flexing his hands trying to dispel the urge, searching the room for anyone he knew, for a distraction.

And then he saw Skye, and he knew exactly why he came there tonight.

As ugly as the twisted dark places he kept hidden inside were, as much as he never wanted anyone to see that part of him, when he felt like this all he wanted was to be near Skye. For her to make one of her stupid jokes and make him laugh, for her to make him feel more human again. To feel like someone understood.

But she was in the middle of the crowd, laughing and smiling so brightly and surrounded by people. She was having fun, and he felt even worse for coming.  _He didn’t belong here._

He downed a cup of warm beer quickly, but it did nothing to dull the bitterness that sat heavy in his bones. He didn’t usually drink much, the smell of it reminding him too strongly of his father and the loss of control never something he enjoyed. But that night he wanted the numbness, craved it. He felt too pathetic to seek out Skye, to try and drag her away from a party where she was having fun just because he needed her  _comfort_ , like he wasn’t a grown man. Like he wasn’t taught long ago that needing someone like that was a weakness. So he eagerly took the shots of Jaeger that a passing frat guy offered him, and searched for another beer immediately after.

He knew he should leave, that staying at the party was only likely to lead to him doing something stupid that he would end up regretting. But the Jaeger and the second beer seemed to finally be doing their job and he felt the warmth settle in his limbs; the anger and the bitter memories that had him in their clenched jaws all afternoon were slowly loosening their grasp on him.

( _Then he heard Tommy’s voice calling out to him for help again, remembered Christian’s firm grip on his shoulder, “Not yet, Grant”, and his own weakness, the way he let his little brother down because he was too_ scared, _and he could feel his fingers clenching into fists again._ )

Skye’s voice broke through the memories, dragging him back to the present, and he felt a rush of gratitude, of pure happiness, rush through him. But then she made a crack about him scaring people, and even though he knew she was joking he couldn’t stop the flinch as he glanced around and noticed the wide berth people were giving him.

“Ward,” she said, her voice dropping as she stepped closer and reached out for him so gently. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

He leaned into her touch, so desperate for her compassion, for her strength, hoping some of it would seep into him from her. He just stood there for a long moment, breathing her in, savoring the soft warmth of her hand on his arm, trying to compose himself enough to explain.

“My older brother announced his run for Senate today,” he told her, begging her to understand everything behind those few words, knowing that she would. Relief flooded through him when he saw the understanding spread across her features. Her grip on his arm tightened briefly as she glanced around the party before turning back to him, asking him if he wanted to get out of there.

He felt himself sag back against the wall at her offer, and he knew this was exactly why he came here, this is why he stayed at this too loud party.  _He needed her._  It was a weakness, to depend on someone else like that, it left you open to allow them to destroy you. But as her arm slipped around him, her smaller body guiding him safely through the crowded party and up the stairs, it didn’t feel weak.  _It felt like salvation._

He expected her to let go of him once they left the house, and he felt his own arm tighten around her reflexively as he waited for it. But her arm remained steady around his waist, her warm body curved tightly against his, like she was holding up his weight, like she could. It was a ridiculous thought, but it made him feel more comforted than anything ever had. He had someone on his side, someone who cared. Someone who would protect him, even from his own ghosts.

He hadn’t drunk that much, not compared to everyone else at the party. But he usually never drank, so it was enough to slow his reflexes a little, to make the edges of his vision fuzz a little. The walk back to the dorm cleared his head mostly though. He probably didn’t need Skye to hold him up anymore, but he couldn’t bring himself to let her go.

When she left him to go to her room to get the bottle of tequila he almost offered to go with her, afraid of what memories will come back to him if she wasn’t there. But the idea of looking that pathetic in front of her, of being unable to go five minutes without her there to comfort him, had him holding his tongue. He sat on his bed and waited for her, the thought flickering through his mind that she is about to be in his room, on his bed, that they will be alone, but he pushed it aside resolutely. She was there because she was his friend, because she was worried about him. Nothing beyond that.

She walked back in and he wanted to tell her everything, to open up his wounds and show her every single fucked up thing about him. The words were stuck in his throat though, after choking them back for so long he honestly didn’t know how to say them. But he saw her face shifting in understanding even as he stumbled over his sentences, because  _of course she would understand this._

And then.

Then her mouth was on his, her lips soft and Jose Cuervo on her tongue, her hands on him, her heat starting a fire that seared through him. Everything that had come before this burned away, all that was left was  _her._  His head spun and time seemed to stop being linear - one second she was above him, her sweater gone and a smirk on her lips, and the next his cheeks were pressed against the smooth skin of her inner thighs and the taste of her on his lips. He was torn between eagerness driving him forward and wanting to stretch this out for as long as he could. He had been dreaming of this for longer than he cared to admit and now it was finally happening and it felt so surreal.  _She was there, she wanted him, this was real._

After, she curled into his body, fitting against him in a way that felt so right, a kind of perfect fit and comfort he had never imagined and he fought against sleep for as long as he could, wanting to savor the moment, to commit everything to memory - the way her head tucked under his chin, the soft puff of her breath on his skin, the curve of her spine under his hand, the softness of her skin. He wanted to keep it all; to freeze this moment and hold onto it forever.

 

He woke up that morning with a warm weight settled against him. It only took half a second to remember what ( _who_ ) that was and how she'd ended up there. His arms reflexively tightened around her, even as the rest of his muscles relaxed. A small, soft smile appeared on his face as he looked down at Skye, breathing rhythmically, hair strewn across the pillow behind her. His hand quickly found its way into her locks and slowly combed through them. For 20 minutes, he just laid there, watching her, listening to her, holding her, and marveling that this had finally happened. It hadn't been his expectation or goal when he'd agreed to leave the party with her, but he couldn't find a single shred of regret in him over the turn of events.

Until he heard her breathing change and felt her stiffen in his arms. Skye had woken up and realized where she was.

As she lay rigidly next to him, he froze as well. Then, with every bit of self control he could muster (that he'd abandoned the night before), he slowly pulled his arms back, giving her space to move. She didn't move for another minute, body still tense and unyielding, eyes wide. Another beat and she jolted up with a gasp. He saw her gaze sweep all over the room before she finally turned to look at him.

Her face was one of confusion and uncertainty and he didn't understand it. Was she regretting the night before? Was she wishing she was anywhere but here with him? Was it really a mistake? He felt his heart clench at that thought and he schooled his features into the non-expression he'd perfected in his childhood. (The flinch in her eyes didn't escape his attention.)  She held his gaze for a little longer, searching his eyes for something, but what, he had no clue.

Her posture changed, shrinking away from him and staring at the ground. When she grabbed her sweater, it sunk in.

“Should-?... I should go,” Skye stammered.

She dressed carefully, not letting the sheet drop until her clothing was back in place. Her sweater was inside out, but he couldn't bring himself to mention it. His panic flared even more as she fished one of her shoes out from under the bed. He needed to say something, needed to stop her from leaving, so they could do  _something_  to figure this out. His mouth opened just as she turned to look up at him. The crushing need to say something was knocked back by the look on her face. She looked almost...scared? He felt something crack inside him at the thought that she'd ever look at him with fear. And suddenly he couldn't bear to face her anymore. He quickly turned away and refused to look anywhere near her, until she finally slipped out of the room.

What had just happened?

 

It would have been easier if Ward had been angry and irritated.  At least everyone knew how to deal with him like that.  But this sullen, withdrawn, numb Ward - no one knew what to do with him. He could see it in the way they all warily stepped around him.  He retreated back into himself, hiding in his room, making up excuses for why he couldn’t hang out with everyone, and the patented Ward harsh glare would come out whenever anyone pushed a little too hard.  The questions were practically visible, rolling off Fitz and Trip, but he stubbornly refused to acknowledge them.  He couldn’t even talk about it with Kara.  His walls were back up and the person who was best at breaking them down wouldn’t even stay in the same room as him for longer than absolutely necessary.

 

“You need to talk to Skye,” the voice called out the second he opened the door.

Ward flipped on the light and scowled at the engineer sitting at his desk. “How did you get in here?”

“Engineering genius, remember?” Fitz scoffed.  Seeing Ward’s incredulous look, he continued, “You think you’re the only one who can pick a lock?  Good heavens, Ward.  It’s not like it’s even hard.  Now, back to business.  You need to talk to Skye.”

Ward busied himself with putting away his books, getting angrier by the second about the intrusion and the accusation.  “No, I don’t,” he growled.

“Yes, you do,” Fitz insisted.

“And what makes you think a) that would do any good and b) she would even talk to me?”

“Why wouldn’t she talk to you?”

“Because she hasn’t in the last month.  Because she clearly hates me.  Because she can’t even stand to be around me.  Which, who can blame her?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.  Where the bloody hell did that come from?  You think she hates you?  And you think she should?  What the hell happened?!”

“Never mind.  Don’t worry about it.  It’s fine.  Time to move forward.”

“No way.  It’s not fine.  You’re a sodding mess, she’s a mess.  Something is  _wrong_.”

“Fitz, don't,” Ward ground out warningly.

The threat clear in Ward's tone stopped the other man for a moment. It wasn't that he was scared, but it became clear to him how much Ward was hurting under the anger. He tried again, but with a lot more gentleness in his tone. “Grant, no one wants to see you in pain like this. It clearly has something to do with Skye. And since she's hurting too, I'm willing to bet this is something you two could fix, together.”

The kindness and concern from his friend broke through the fragile walls Ward had hastily reconstructed over the last few weeks. He sighed and stared at the floor.

The silence washed over them for a few moments. It was heavy, but not tense. Fitz knew he had to wait for Ward to speak or it would never happen. No one rushes Grant Ward.

“She must hate me. Why else would she have run away?” he finally whispered.

“When did she run away? From what? From you?” Fitz asked softly.

“Yeah, from me. Remember that party at the Gamma house a few weeks ago?”

“Oh yeah, that was a great time,” Fitz recalled with a fond smile. “Jemma smashed those pretentious frat boys at beer pong and made them cry. Well, maybe not exactly cry, but surely want to-”

“Fitz!” Ward interrupted.

“Sorry,” he apologized sheepishly.

“Anyway, I left the party with Skye and we ended up back here, and well…” Ward coughed pointedly, eyes gesturing to the bed.

“Huh? What? Oh, oh that?” Ward’s meaning finally dawned on Fitz, but something about Fitz’s tone and expression made Ward think his friend wasn’t as surprised as he expected. “I see. So...I'm still missing something. One would think that would be cause for celebration. You two have needed to shag for ages. Why would there be so much drama? Unless, oh, was it bad? Was she bad? Or were you? Or was it-”

Ward cut him off before he could spin up into full ramble mode. “It wasn't bad. It was good,  _really_ good. Not that that's any of your business. The point is, the next morning, we woke up, I thought everything was going to be great. But she froze, then ran away. And since she won't even stay in the same room as me for more than three minutes, so I'm pretty sure she regrets it and hates me for it.”

“Rubbish.” Fitz was so matter of fact and immediate with his response that Ward did a double take.

“Did you not hear me? She  _left_. She clearly didn't want to continue anything with me.”

“I heard what you said,” Fitz patronized. “I just don't believe you.”

“Well, that’s exactly what happened,” Ward scoffed.  “You asked, I answered.  So, if you don’t believe it, I can’t help you.”

Fitz heaved a put-upon sigh.  “Oh, poor, naive, innocent Ward.  I believe that’s what  _happened_ , I just don’t believe that she  _feels_  that way.  Nor do I think you should just give up.”

Ward gaped at his friend, speechless.

Fitz rolled his eyes.  “You seriously can’t tell me you’re not in love with her.”

“Doesn’t matter what I feel,” Ward mumbled.

“Oh, but it does,”  Fitz continued.  “Plus, it’s obvious she feels the same.”

Ward barked a harsh laugh.  “That’s a good one.”

“You’ve known her for three plus years now.  Have you ever seen her act the way does with you around anyone else?  If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.”

“Right, because her trying to antagonize me for two solid years is such a sign of affection.”

“Actually, it is,” Fitz explained.  “She just couldn’t stay away from you.  No matter what you did, she kept coming back, kept trying to prove something to you.  If she truly didn’t care, she wouldn’t have bothered.  Think about it, Ward.  Does Skye waste her time and energy on things she doesn’t care about?”

Ward paused and really thought about what Fitz was saying.  He had a point.  Skye had seemingly endless energy, but she didn’t spend it on things she wasn’t passionate about.  But it still didn’t change what had happened.  “Yeah, but if what you’re saying is true, why did she leave?”

“If  _you_  care that much, why didn’t you stop her?” Fitz flung back.

“What was I supposed to do?  Tell the girl who wouldn’t even look me in the eyes that I am hopelessly in love with her and beg her not to leave?!”

“Yes.”

“She would have just run out the door faster!”

Fitz suddenly leaned forward in response to Ward’s declaration.  “Like hell she would have!  That girl is your best friend and cares about you more than anyone else.  She was probably worried sick that she had upset  _you_ , that she was responsible for ruining your friendship.  Did you even say anything to her?  Or just let her leave, because you were convinced she was rejecting you?”

Ward’s jaw dropped.  

“I figured as much,” Fitz huffed, then softened.  “Listen, I wasn’t there, I don’t know exactly what happened.  But I know the two of you well enough to imagine.  She was probably confused and anxious about what it all meant, and was looking for reassurance.  And you didn’t know what to do with that, and assumed she was regretting it, so you shut down?  So both of you pulled back, convinced the other one didn’t want you, and now here we are, you both completely miserable.”

Ward grunted in acknowledgment, but kept staring at the carpet, the quiet stretching out as he considered what Fitz had said.  Was it possible that she was just freaked out in that moment?  Could he have reassured her?  Was their friendship broken beyond repair, like he thought, or was Fitz right and there was a chance he could fix it?  Grant broke the silence, “Well, what am I supposed to do now?”

“That depends on what you want.”

“I…...I want her to be happy,” Ward said softly.  “Even if that’s just as my friend.”

“I think you’re wrong, but that’s okay.  So, will you talk to her now?  Please?”

“I’ll think about it,” Ward slowly agreed, something akin to hope starting to glimmer in his chest.

Fitz sighed, “I guess that’s the best I’m going to get from you.”  Ward merely shrugged.  “Fine, just don’t wait too long.  This isn’t working for anyone.  Some of us have better things to do than fix your mess of a love life.  Think of the rest of us!”

Ward laughed, a genuine laugh this time.  “Sorry  _my_  life is such a problem for you.”

“You should be sorry!  I mean, really.  It’s a miracle any of the rest of us have been able to get any classes finished with how much drama we’ve had to deal with from you two.  I am  _trying_  to get into grad school here, I need all my focus on what is important.  I can only devote so much of my precious brainpower to your stubbornness.”

“Don’t stretch yourself too thin.  I know you’re working with a limited capacity there,” Ward joked.

“You take that back, Grant Ward,” Fitz accused.  “My genius knows no bounds.  Or at least not any bounds your simple mind can comprehend.”

The two friends chuckled, the tension receding.  

“Thanks, Fitz.”

“You’re welcome.  Now, you owe me a burger or a beer; I’m not picky.”

“Dream on.”


	5. epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It wasn’t so much that they actively decided to hide the change in their relationship status from their friends. It was more that three minutes after Skye left Ward alone in that dark corner feeling dazed and euphoric and horny as hell, Hunter decided to leap over a pile of barrels in a heroic action hero move to take out Trip and ended up dislocating his shoulder.
> 
> In the chaos and confusion that followed, no one seemed to pay that much attention to the fact that Skye and Ward were no longer behaving as though the other had a five foot forcefield surrounding them. (Or that Skye’s hair was definitely a lot more disheveled than a game of laser tag should really cause.)

_“So all that I’m asking is that you handle me with caution,  
'Cause I don’t give myself often, But I guess I’ll try today.”_

It wasn’t so much that they actively decided to hide the change in their relationship status from their friends. It was more that three minutes after Skye left Ward alone in that dark corner feeling dazed and euphoric and horny as hell, Hunter decided to leap over a pile of barrels in a heroic action hero move to take out Trip and ended up dislocating his shoulder.

In the chaos and confusion that followed, no one seemed to pay that much attention to the fact that Skye and Ward were no longer behaving as though the other had a five foot forcefield surrounding them. (Or that Skye’s hair was definitely a lot more disheveled than a game of laser tag should really cause.)

Their friends had all been more than vocal in their opinions on the inevitability of Skye and Ward ending up together for so long. It had long since stepped beyond annoying and into slightly creepy territory with the degree to which some of them seemed obsessed with the relationship between two of their friends. So, rather than the two of them trying to keep the change in their relationship from the others, they kind of assumed that everyone would figure it out for themselves.

They didn’t.

Skye came to his room a couple days after the laser tag game with a slightly quizzical look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” Grant asked, leaning back in his chair as he turned away from his essay to look at her leaning against his closed door.

“I thought everyone would have figured it out,” she said, almost to herself. “I mean, we were holding hands while we were waiting for Hunter in the Emergency Room, these people have spent the last three years dissecting every interaction between us and yet they somehow miss that?” Skye looked over at him incredulously.

“Are you sure they missed it?” he replied. “Maybe they’re just giving us space.”

Skye’s incredulous expression quickly morphed into something that strongly implied her doubts about his intelligence. “I’m sorry, have you met our friends? The same people who made bets on our sex life? You think somehow the idea of boundaries suddenly occurred to them?!”

Ward laughed at the skeptical disbelief in her voice, but he honestly couldn’t disagree. “Okay, fine. So they aren’t giving us privacy. What happened to set this off?”

Skye pouted at him as she walked across the room to slump in his lap.

“Jemma gave me a lecture,” she told him, as his arms came down to curl around her, still slightly revelling in the newness of being able to do that. “She said she was glad to see that we weren’t ‘painfully avoiding each other anymore’.” (For the record, Skye’s British accent had not improved in all her years of friendship with Jemma.) “But then she kept going on about how I really need to tell you how I feel. And it’s stupid, but the more she said it, the more I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of being right.”

“So,” Grant laughed at her. “Basically you’re going to hide our relationship from our friends out of spite?”

“Not  _spite_ ,” Skye argued. “Just… They’re all going to be so smug. I kind of want to see how long it takes them to notice on their own; even the playing field a little bit.”

He smiled and tightened his arms around her.  “You think we should make a bet of our own on who notices first and how long it takes?  We can’t let them have all the fun.”

Skye sat up to look at him, eyes twinkling.  “And what are the terms?  What could you possibly offer that I can’t weasel out of you already?”

“Oh, you think you have that much power, do you?”

“I don’t think.  I  _know_ ,” she challenged.

Ward shook his head, chuckling under his breath.  “Fine.  If you win, we can go to the Rocky Horror Picture Show showing you’re always going on about.”  

Skye’s eyes lit up, since she’d been telling him for months how much she wanted to go.  “And a costume!” she demanded.

He balked, “NO costume!”

“But you’d make an amazing Frank N. Furter!  I can just picture it now.  Grant Ward in fishnets and lipstick.”  

“Absolutely not!  There is no way you’re ever getting me into a corset.  Not gonna happen,” he declared.

Skye thought on that for a moment.  “I suppose we could both dress up and be Brad and Janet.  But that’s a little on-the-nose.  Hmmm.  I need to think about that a little more.  But a costume  _is_ happening.”

He rolled his eyes and continued on, “Ignoring all that, if  _I_  win, then you have to go camping with me.”

Skye’s face lost all humor and she stood up, pointing a finger at him accusingly.  “You take that back, Grant Ward.”

He looked at her seriously.  “What?  It’s a great option.  You’d have fun,” he argued.

“I would not and you know it.  There are,” Skye shuddered, “ _bugs_  out there. Not happening.  Pick something else.”

Ward maintained a straight face for another moment, before dissolving into laughter.  “Your face!  You were so horrified!  It was like I’d asked you to switch to bran flakes for breakfast or forgo coffee for a month.  Though, come to think about it, that might not be a bad idea.”

“Wait.  What?!”  Skye was confused herself now.

“Of course I won’t make you go camping.  I value my life was too much.  Plus, I don’t think anyone could live through the sheer amount of whining you’d be sure to inflict upon me.  So, hard pass on that for me too.  How about if I win, then we go to the classic car museum for a day?”

Skye gaped just another moment longer.  “Oooh, I hate you sometimes,” she hissed, but her grin belied her ferocity.

“No you don’t,” he sing-songed back.  “What do you say?  Fair deal?”

“Fine,” she sighed.  “I suppose that’s fair.  But it doesn’t matter, because I’m going to win.  My money is totally on Kara figuring it out by the end of the week.  She’s my roommate, for heaven’s sake.  She’s going to notice how much  _less_  time I am spending in said room.”

“A decent guess.  But no.  Fitz will notice next week and say something to Jemma, who will then hunt us down and tie us to chairs until we admit it.”

“Ha!  She wishes.  Anyway, shake on it?”  Skye stuck her hand out, smirk in full force.

“Deal.” Ward shook it once, then used the connection to pull her close.  “Come here.”

She squeaked a little at the sudden movement but melted against him.  She went up on her tiptoes to get to his lips.  

He huffed and rolled his eyes, before grabbing her legs and hoisting her up.  “There we go,” he whispered, looking up at her now that she was higher than him.  “Much better.”

She wrapped her legs around his waist and whispered back, “So much better.”

 

They were both wrong.  Three, almost four, weeks had passed and still no one had noticed.  Or at least not commented to them about it.  The two of them were both done with waiting on their friends.  

“No, Skye!  I am not wearing glitter.  It’s bad enough you convinced me to wear these shorts.  I feel so….exposed,” he said uncomfortably.

Skye laughed.  “You know you’re going to end up with glitter on you no matter what, right?  Plus, you look super hot in those shorts.  Everyone will thank me for them.”

Ward blushed, but pulled the focus back on the important matter at hand.  “How am I going to end up with glitter on me?”

“Because  _I_  am wearing glitter.  So unless you plan on staying 10 feet away from me all night, it’s going to end up on you too.  And that would be a real shame, because I kinda like being near you.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked, grabbing her hips and pulling her to him.  

“Mmhmm,” she replied, giving him a kiss.  Before he could deepen it, she pulled away.  “Stop trying to distract me!  We are going to Kara’s party and we are not going to be late.  We owe her that.”

He groaned again.  “But it would be so much more fun to stay here!”

“Suck it up, Ward.  She’s our best friend and you know, it really is high time everyone figure this out.  So we’re going out, with our friends, and if it takes me climbing on top of you in the middle of the rink to get it through to them, then that’s what is going to happen.”

“Now, that’s a plan I can get behind,” he said winking lasciviously.  “Though, I generally prefer to not have audience for that.”

She slapped his hand away from her ass again, giggling.  “Save it, mister!  We have places to be and friends to gross out.”

 

As much as he was chagrined to admit it, the roller disco party with the 70s/80s theme was actually more fun than he expected.  Skye’s side ponytail and neon scrunchie were a look he’d never expected to see on her, but like everything else, she made it her own and it just worked.  Plus, you know, she’s drop dead gorgeous.  That never hurt anything.  Ward was taking a break from laps around the rink to grab something from the snack bar, when he started overhearing a conversation.

“Where did he even get those?” Jemma asked, gesturing to Hunter and the electric pink teeny tiny shorts that barely covered him.

“I’m pretty sure he got them from Bobbi.  I swear I saw her wear those last week,” Kara replied.

“Wherever he got them, it’s still better than what I saw during the scavenger hunt,” Skye said with a shiver.  “That was just beyond anything I ever needed to see.”

“And here I would have thought that the sight of shirtless Grant would have distracted you enough,” Kara said winking.

Skye laughed.  “That is a thoroughly distracting sight, but not even that was enough to bleach Hunter’s see through tighty-whiteys from my brain.  Sadly.”

Jemma and Kara exchanged a look, clearly not used to hearing Skye accept comments about her attraction to Ward so easily, especially in light of how the last few weeks had been, and definitely not referring to ogling his chest in present tense.

“You know, I have to say it’s a relief to see you two finally are back to normal,” Jemma started.  “And I know I’ve said this a million times, but are you ever going to tell him about how you feel?”

Skye snickered to herself.  “Well, Jemma, actually-”

“Nope, I can’t hear one more denial or explanation.  GIRL.  You have to talk to him and soon!” Kara cut her off.

Just then, Ward skated up to the girls, eyes only for Skye.  “I take it back,” he said.  “Thank you so much for these shorts and not making me wear ones like those.”

“Of course, babe,” Skye assured him.  “I would never steer you wrong when it comes to something like this.”

Ward smiled and leaned over to kiss her, then settled himself against the half wall behind her, with one arm draped around her waist.

Skye was still grinning like an idiot when she turned to look at her friends.  Ward had never seen Kara so shell-shocked.  His best friend’s mouth gaped open like a fish.  Jemma wasn’t faring much better either.  “What?” Skye asked, slyly, taking a sip of Ward’s drink.  “Can I help you with something?”

“What? How?” Jemma gasped out.

“Use your words, Dr. Simmons,” she goaded.

“When the hell did that happen and more importantly, why hadn’t you told us?!” Kara screeched.

Ward shuddered a little at the piercing pitch her voice reached, but he could feel Skye shaking with laughter against him at their friends’ reactions.

“You know, for someone who wants to be a detective, you’re not very observant,” Skye teased.

Kara slugged her in the arm.  “TRIP!” she bellowed, turning to get her boyfriend’s attention.  “Did you know these two idiots finally hooked up?”

Trip let out a big deep laugh.  “Well that explains the shorts.”

Kara’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline.  “That explains the shorts?!  That’s all you have to say?!”

“Kara, chill!” Skye placated.  “I don’t think the dogs in the next county heard you.”

“Oh, I’m  _so_  sorry, Skye.  Pardon me for being just a little bit surprised and actually quite offended that you hadn’t told me!”

“Drama queen,” Skye muttered under her breath.  

“I’ll show you drama, if that’s what you want,” Kara threatened.

“Okay! Okay!  I’ll tell you, geez,” Skye acquiesced.  “It was at laser tag.  We literally ran into each other, and since your oh-so-timely intervention,” Skye side eyed her friends, “and some advice from Hunter, I decided to just talk to him.  Except my eloquent speech flew right out of my head and I just kissed him instead.  That went pretty well-”

“I’ll bet it did,” Kara grumbled.

“-and we basically both said we were all in, and well, here you go.  You guys win.”

“But that was like three weeks ago!  Why didn’t you tell us?” Jemma cried, her powers of speech finally recovering.

“Remember what happened that night?  Bobbi’s boneheaded boyfriend dislocated his shoulder and we all ended up in the ER.  Wasn’t exactly the right time to announce it.  Plus, we hadn’t even gone on a date yet.  We were supposed to go out that night, but again, Hunter derailed our plans.”

“I did what now?” Hunter butted in, having heard the last bit as he went by.

Skye sighed and turned to face him.  “You delayed Ward and I going out on a date with your insanity.”

“Wait, you finally did it?” Hunter was shocked. “Bobbi!” he hollered.  “These two finally got their heads out of their asses!”

Skye covered her face with her hands.  “Seriously, Hunter?” she hissed.  “Does everyone here need to know?”

“Called it!” Bobbi yelled back and skated over.  “I told you there was no way Ward would wear that outfit unless he was talked into it by a girlfriend.”

“That’s what I said!” Trip interjected.

“Plus, the glitter all over Ward kinda gave it away,” Bobbi added.

“But still,” Kara said pointedly.  “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

Skye shrugged.  

“We just thought you’d figure it out.  Not like you’ve been subtle about your opinions on the matter,” Ward interjected.  He tightened his arms around Skye’s stomach.  “Plus, it was kinda fun to see how long it would take you guys to notice.”

“Mission freaking accomplished, asshole,” Kara ground out.

“Aww, come on Kara, don’t be like that,” Skye pleaded.  

“It’s my birthday and I will if I want to be,” Kara replied haughtily.  Then her face melted into a warm smile.  “But really, I am so happy for you guys.  About damn time.”

Ward smiled and could feel Skye beaming as he hugged her a little tighter.   _About damn time, indeed._

 

*   *   *

The morning after the party, Ward wakes up with Skye in his arms and glitter all over his pillow and his skin. It is absolutely worth it.

He tightens his arms around her, pulling her body closer to curve around her even more, pressing a gentle kiss against the curve of her shoulder before snuggling his face into her neck and trying to doze a little longer.

Skye has other ideas apparently, if the hand that is lazily tracing along his thigh and around his hipbone is anything to go by. Ward groans helplessly into her hair as her hand slips between their bodies to brush teasingly against the length of him, hardening rapidly after being pressed against her soft warmth. Skye just smirks at him cheekily in response, leaning up to nibble lightly on his earlobe.

Ward huffs as he rolls onto his back, dragging her with him so she is laying on top of him, wearing nothing but a smug smirk, and it might just be his favorite thing ever.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he tells her, the threat taken out of his words as his hands are already beginning to wander across the expanse bare skin as far as he can reach.

“But what a way to go,” she grins at him before leaning down to kiss him again.

Ward feels himself melting into her kiss, groaning in frustration when she pulls away. When he finally opens his eyes, she is gazing down at him smugly, completely aware of the power she has over him and he doesn’t even care as he leans up to kiss her again.

“Why exactly did we decide to wait for them to figure it out again?” Skye asks. “We could have been having these lazy mornings for weeks, instead of me running out before it got light so Kara didn’t catch on.”

“Hey,  _I’m_  not the one who was in denial for years,” Ward retorts. “This could have been happening for a lot longer than a few weeks you know.”

Skye rolls her eyes, but she leans down to kiss him quickly and Ward takes that as agreement.

“So when did you first know you were in love with me?” Skye asks teasingly, with her chin resting on her hands where they are folded on his chest. “Was it like, the very first time you saw me? Was that why you were such an ass? Were you just overwhelmed by how amazing-”

She shrieks with laughter as he tickles her, her legs flailing and nearly causing some serious damage if not for his quick reflexes. They are both panting hard, the last vestiges of their laughter still breaking through, as they try to catch their breath. Ward has her pinned beneath him, her hands trapped between his chest and hers as she grins up at him.

Something warm and almost sharp blooms in his chest as he looks at her, laugh-drunk and smiling and soft beneath him, and he still can’t quite believe that this is something he gets to have. That she chose him, that this is actually happening. That somehow, through the most circuitous path, he has ended up with everything he could have ever wanted.

“So?” Skye prods him for an answer when he just continues to stare at her with a goofy smile, her fingers creeping up from their spot on his chest to tickle under his ears. She laughs when he tries to squirm away from her touch and nearly sends her flying out of the bed to the floor. “Come on, Ward, you can tell me the truth. You’ve been pining since Freshman year, haven’t you?”

She’s still giggling as she settles back into her previous position above him, her voice teasing and light as she searches out more ticklish zones on his body. But there is something in her eyes, vulnerable and a little afraid that she’s revealed too much somehow in what was supposed to be a joke.

Ward feels warmth bloom in his chest as he looks up at her, the early morning sun casting a halo around her hair as she leans over him, her skin soft against his and her grin infectious. Nothing in his life has ever felt as right as this, and even though it sends a sharp tinge of terror through him at the idea that having something like this only means it can be taken away from him, he feels himself settle in the contentment of the moment. There are no guarantees, but he knows that neither one of them will give up without a fight. They have both waited so long for this feeling of belonging, to feel this way, to know that you are right where you are supposed to be. They might fight, they might slam doors and shout, but Ward knows that neither of them will walk away from this.

It’s real.

He can feel the goofy grin spread across his face as he gazes at her, still trailing her fingers along his rib cage, searching for a ticklish spot with that focused intensity that only Skye could give to a task like this.

“Yeah,” he finally murmurs, reaching up to cup her face between his hands as he pulls her back up so her lips are level with his again.

“‘Yeah’ what?” Skye asks, looking a little confused.

“Yes, I’ve been pining for you since Freshman year,” Ward tells her, pulling her in for a kiss. “I don’t even know when I fell in love with you, I feel like I always have been. You worked your way in and I never stood a chance.”

“So, you’re saying I annoyed you into falling in love with me?” Skye smirks at him, but he can see the wonder in her gaze as she leans down to kiss him again, moving from his lips to his jaw.

“Exactly,” Ward retorts. “So, what about you, when did you realize you couldn’t live without me?”

Skye laughs against his throat, her breath on his skin causing a trail of goosebumps to break out.

“Somewhere in between you gift wrapping my room and that night at bumper cars?” she teases. “Or maybe it was when you sang karaoke. It definitely happened before the fountain.”

Pulling away to rest her chin on her hands, folded over his chest, Skye stares at him for a long moment, the teasing in her expression fading away into a soft smile.

“I love you,” she says, her eyes sparkling with happiness and a slight sheen of tears.

“I love you too,” Ward replies, leaning up to kiss her again. It’s messy because they are both smiling so wide, but neither of them seem to care. He tries to pour every ounce of feeling he has into his kiss, every single moment of joy and laughter and pain and longing and need that she has ever inspired in him.  It has all led him to this moment.

It has led him to her.  

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at us on tumblr [eive](http://evieoh.tumblr.com/) and [Daisy](https://stargazerdaisy.tumblr.com/)


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